Counselor State of the Industry 2013

This Year's Survey Identifies 10 Strategies That Are Leading Distributors To Fast Growth

The State of the Industry survey identifies 10 strategies that are leading distributor companies to fast growth. Here, we present a wealth of data, insights, trend analysis and business tactics that are sure to set the future course of the market.

Growth, success, expansion. It's all happening right now in the ad specialty market. In fact, Counselor's 2013 State of the Industry survey shows that distributors are increasing their revenues, profits, order sizes, number of orders, marketing efforts and customer retention rates.

And yet, what are the cogs in the machine that are making business work today for ad specialty distributors? That's what we were interested in drilling down to in this report. From capitalizing on opportunities and overcoming challenges to creating new relationships and finding points of differentiation, there are a wealth of avenues distributors can use today to find success.

In this in-depth report, we delve into 10 strategies that distributors are using – and can expand even further in the future – to find success right now. There are stories on sales success (please don't try to be the low-cost leader; it's an unsustainable strategy), marketing innovation (go digital before you get left behind and miss out on big opportunities), and operational best practices (speed and efficiency are the name of the game right now).

Ultimately, with data gleaned from the State of the Industry survey
to illustrate our points, what follows is a package of articles designed to create a road map for business success in the coming year.